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What’s in a tweet? For most people it’s a post and a prayer. For me, it’s value, information others can use, followers, reputation, image, re-tweets, customers, referrals, sales and money.

Is that enough?

Twitter has the power to generate awareness, create value attraction, keep you or your brand at top-of-mind status and build relationships.

Is that enough to get you to participate?

I want to share some advice about Twitter: I am not passing myself off as an “expert,” and there is nothing to buy and no free webinar to attend. These are just my observations and successes based on the past four years of my participation.

Here are my stats as of this writing:

My twitter handle is my name: @gitomer.

Followers: 60,580.

Following: 17,109.

Tweets: 3,127.

Average tweets per day: 4.

Average links to view a video or an offer: 1 per day.

Average number of re-tweets/favorites per day: 25-75 per tweet.

New followers per day: 30-50.

Here are 3.5 things I recommend you do in order to really benefit from Twitter:

1. Have an objective and a strategy. Twitter is intended for you to inform with value, influence, brand, and (on occasion) to converse or respond, not chit-chat. The value of your tweets will determine who stays with you and re-tweets you.

When I see someone with 14,500 tweets and 285 followers, two words come to mind: no value. I often use the direct message feature to respond, rather than an open tweet that’s meaningless to everyone else.

2. Create a list of value-based tweets and subjects you intend to tweet about. Be prepared at least a week in advance. Keep a Twitter file that documents ideas and possible tweets.

I tweet quotes from my books, and thoughts that come to me during the day (or night). You can also re-tweet others if you believe it helps your followers.

Note: I try to leave at least 10 characters open so that others can easily re-tweet me.

Note: If you re-tweet me or favor me, I’ll follow you as a courtesy.

3. Approach followers of strategic value. You have an email list. Invite each person to follow you personally. In an email, tell each person about your Twitter participation, list a few of your tweets, and ask them to follow you by clicking a link and the follow button.

If you have 1,000 people on your list, and 250 follow you, it’s a great start. Continue to send your tweets out weekly to the rest of the list, and re-ask them to follow you. This will take time, but the earning potential exceeds the stupid TV show you’re watching.

3.5 Be consistent. Tweet every day, at least once a day.

Don’t DM (direct message) me saying “Thanks for the follow.” It’s an annoying waste of my time and yours. Instead, how about sending me the same kind of message I sent you — one of value, a message to make me think, make me smile, or make me money. Insincere politeness and phony thanks make you sound like a bad flight attendant reading from a script into a bad microphone behind a wall.

Don’t re-tweet the news. You are not the source. Originality counts — especially if it’s valuable or thought-provoking to your customers.

Your Twitter outreach is not going anywhere if:

You talk with other people in superficial chatter more than 10 percent of your tweets.

You re-tweet others more than 50 percent of the time.

You fail to tweet your own thoughts.

You have nothing but sales messages with a link to buy something.

You’re only trying to get people to “go here” to “read this” and “see my blog post” or “watch this video.”

Jeffrey Gitomer is an author, professional speaker and business trainer who writes and lectures on sales, customer loyalty and personal development. Contact him at salesman@gitomer.com. Follow him on Twitter @gitomer

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